Japan is the European Union's (EU) biggest trading partner after China, but the trade in railway equipment between the two economic powers is a poor reflection of this status and the scale of their respective railway markets. East Japan Railway Company (JR East) invested €1.64bn in new equipment in 2015, but EU suppliers accounted for less than 5% of this. Japan's total market for railway equipment is worth €5.8bn but only 0.03% of rolling stock is imported. In recent years Japanese suppliers have made gains in the European market. Notably last year Hitachi opened an new plant in England to assemble regional and long-distance trains for Britain and completed its acquisition of Finmeccanica's rail business. Yet sales of Japanese railway equipment in Europe arguably do not reflect the technical standards being achieved by Japanese suppliers, or their success in other parts of the world.
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